Europe

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its Advice in relation to the application of the AIFMD (Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive) passport to non-EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and its Opinion on the functioning of the passport for EU AIFMs and the national private placement regimes (NPPRs).
»

The European real estate industry has expressed concern over draft European Banking Authority (EBA) guidelines that could both limit how much banks can lend to real estate and lead to real estate funds being inappropriately caught by future shadow banking regulations.
»

On 1 October the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) clarified its position that US managers with master-feeder structures would not be required to report on positions held in the master if only the feeder was marketed into the UK.
»

PwC Luxembourg is the leading professional services firm in the country with around 2,400 people. Similarly, its Real Estate and Infrastructure team is the largest multidisciplinary team of specialists in the Grand Duchy with more than 250 experts supporting global real estate managers; these range from tax advisers and engineers to auditors and fund accountants.
»

By Kavitha Ramachandran, Maitland - As the alternative investment market matures, investors are increasingly demanding far more information and transparency from fund managers in return for their capital. Transparency is the new name of the game. In this regard, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) may be viewed as a single piece of regulation, but its ultimate aims are more or less in line with other regulatory changes such as MiFID II/MiFIR and PRIPS. There will come a point where the reporting and transparency requirements demanded under the AIFMD will become the minimum accepted standard needed to attract investors.
»

A true sign of how well a fund jurisdiction is doing is the level of growth, not just in new fund formations, but asset growth within administration firms. The onset of the AIFMD has opened up a new range of services for administrators, in particular by providing a Depo Lite solution to managers running non-EU funds.
»

There is no experience as the one gained in the front lines. The fund industry struggles with changing regulation, and those companies whose business model is based on providing reporting services know best that the devil lies in the detail. The following are a number of observations after 12 months of report production and filing of the Annex IV Transparency Reports of AIFMD.
»

It is fair to say that alternative fund managers are feeling a degree of regulatory fatigue. Every month, it seems, there are updates, developments and areas of additional compliance. But whilst on the surface this can appear overwhelming, digging a little deeper reveals that service providers are positioning themselves to offer a more complete set of value-added solutions.
»

“There has been a lot of fund activity in Luxembourg this year focused on private equity and real estate. It’s an area of growing investor demand. They are looking for different options now and ways for investing that go beyond hedge funds,” observes Jesper Steiness, director of business development EMEA at Advent (Luxembourg).
»

“The Special Limited Partnership (SCSp) has been successfully introduced into Luxembourg law. It is set to benefit from onshore fund activity following the AIFMD and is of particular interest to Anglo-Saxon managers and investors given their familiarity with limited partnership structures,” explains Paul Van den Abeele (pictured), Partner at Clifford Chance (Luxembourg).
»

According to figures released by ALFI at the end of July 2014, there were 3,891 funds with total assets of EUR2.90trn. By comparison, at the end of 2013 the size of Luxembourg’s fund industry was EUR2.61trn with 3,902 funds. During 2013 the number of sub-funds increased by 265 and there were 279 SICARs established. Between end-2012 and end-2013, the number of Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) – Luxembourg’s most popular regulated fund vehicle – increased from 1,485 to 1,562.
»

Augentius has received authorisation from the Ministère des Finances, Luxembourg to act as an authorised depositary to private equity and real estate funds under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
»

Risk management, cost and changes in fund structuring are the key issues for managers and investors arising from the initial impact of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), according to Crestbridge.
»

AIFMD Annex IV reporting is rapidly approaching for alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) and with that deadline has come a last minute scramble to determine reporting requirements, according to ConceptOne.
»

Most Belgian REITs have called shareholder meetings in the coming weeks to vote on adopting a new corporate status that legally separates them from funds, which face additional regulatory constraints and higher costs imposed by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), according to the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA).
»

Cybersecurity issues have existed as long as the internet. What seems to have changed in the last 18 months is not only that the nature of the breaches has become more sophisticated, but also the fact that hedge funds have become a much bigger target.
... »

A couple of years ago, the title Chief Information Security Officer, or CISO for short, was a foreign concept within the hedge fund community. The winds have changed, however, as hedge funds become increasingly targeted by cyber hackers, causing many to hire a CISO to uphold the network integrity of the firm.
... »